Escapade, our Wayfarer dinghy, is now sitting parked as if she were a motor car. Mum says that it is quite strange to look out of her bedroom window and see a boat parked in front of it

Up and walked Mix before breakfast. Met with Tom and we spent the morning fitting the bookcases to the walls of the Bothy. It was more difficult than in the summerhouse because the old Bothy didn’t have many square angles, but we managed and the Bothy is now really beginning to take shape.

In the afternoon, Tom and I went up to Duns Church to set out the seats for this evening’s presbytery meeting. We had been astounded to discover that for all the years that Helen has been clerk she has had to set out all of the chairs – what a pity we hadn’t discovered earlier or we would have done something about it.

In the evening I went to the monthly meeting of the Presbytery in Duns. It was a short meeting – there wasn’t a lot of business – but I came away from the meeting having been appointed as Presbytery Clerk for the next year. It wasn’t a total surprise: our fabulous presbytery clerk is unwell and had to give up, and both the business convener and the moderator had spoken to me, the conversation going something like this, “Helen needs to retire and there really isn’t anyone else.” So I have agreed to take on the post for a year which will enable the presbytery to see what it wants to do in the long term without a present panic.

Brought home a Chinese take-away. Shrimp foo yong with shrimp curry and chips. It was really good. Walked Mix and went to bed.